Monday, June 30, 2014

Nebuchadnezzar in Lebanon

(Post by A.D. Riddle)

The ArchéOrient blog recently posted a piece by Rocio da Riva on the inscriptions and reliefs in Lebanon belonging to the Neo-Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar II. (This is the king mentioned in 2 Kings 24-25; 2 Chron 36; Jeremiah; Daniel; and elsewhere in the Bible.) The original article is in French, but Google Translate does an almost-semi-respectable job of producing an English version here.

The article mentions four places in Lebanon where Nebuchadnezzar left inscriptions and/or reliefs.

Nahr el-Kalb

Wadi Brisa, aka Wadi esh-Sharbin

Shir es-Sanam

Wadi es-Saba'

Three of these sites are in the northeast of the Lebanon Mountains, oriented in the direction of Riblah, Nebuchadnezzar's headquarters in the west (2 Kings 25; Jer 39 and 52). The inscriptions/reliefs are located along routes which lead up into the mountains and which were used by the Babylonians for felling and transporting cedars of Lebanon for construction. The locations can be viewed here in Google Maps (if I did it right).

The Nahr el-Kalb inscriptions are alone on the other side of the Lebanon Mountains, at the mouth of a river named Nahr el-Kalb on the Mediterranean coast. (Well, not entirely alone, because on the opposite bank of the river is a rocky promontory where one will find nearly two dozen other stelae left by conquerers from Ramesses II in ca. 1276 B.C. to the "Liberation of South Lebanon" in A.D. 2000. See Seth's post here.)

Nahr el-Kalb ("Dog River").

The inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar are secretly hidden

behind all the vegetation just right of the bridge.

Da Riva has been working on the royal inscriptions of all the Neo-Babylonian kings. A lot of her recently-published work concentrates in particular on the Lebanon inscriptions listed above, but she has also just completed an edition of the inscriptions of Nabopolassar, Amel-Marduk and Neriglissar (cover shown below). Many of her articles are available at her Academia.edu page (sign up required).

As a prelude to her editions of the Neo-Babylonian royal inscriptions, Da Riva published a short introduction entitled The Neo-Babylonian Royal Inscriptions: An Introduction (2008). We recommend especially the first 19 pages where one will find a very nice, up-to-date, historical summary of the Neo-Babylonian period.

Satellite images from the US State Department’s Cultural Heritage Center “document the scale of destruction that looters continue to inflict on archaeological heritage sites during the ongoing conflict in Syria.”

Identifying a complete set of Edward Robinson’s Biblical Researches in Palestine at archive.org is a bit confusing, but David Stark has posted links to volumes 1 and 2 (3 volumes from 1841 in a 2-volume set, 2nd/11th eds.) and volume 3 (the 1856 volume, Later Biblical Researches, 11th ed.).

I’ll be traveling the better part of the next two weeks and will not be posting much. If they discover an archive at Hazor, Gezer, or Gath, I’m sure that one of my fellow contributors will let you know.

ABR has created a new video series, Is It Time To Throw Away Your Bible? They have now shared a couple of free episodes: King David and Solomon: Men or Myths? Part One and Part Two. The video set is on sale for only $20.

A 46-year-old man was killed in an accident at an archaeological dig site between Homesh and Karnei Shomron in the West Bank on Thursday. He was later identified as Yuval Pelleg.

An initial investigation into the incident found that an Israeli and several Palestinian workers were digging at the entrance to a cave when rocks began falling down the mountain, trapping the man.

People on the scene succeeded in removing some of the rocks from on top of the man. A military medical crew attempted to resuscitate him while his lower half remained trapped under the rocks, but were forced to pronounce him dead on the scene.

Gershon Mesika, the head of the Shomron Regional Council, stated, “In the framework of building a new road, a new cave was discovered. According to the procedure, an archaeologist was sent to survey the cave and to study it. Then, there was the disaster. We are sorry for the loss of the senior level archeologist doing research in Samaria.”

The Times of Israel has a map of the area in which was working. Jerusalem Online has a photo of the accident scene. Arutz-7 has another here. Robert Cargill has a photo of Yuval here. A lecture that he gave in 2012 about recent excavations at Qumran is online here. The preliminary report that he wrote with Yitzhak Magen of Qumran excavations from 1993 to 2004 is online here. Jim West notes that Yuval had a wife and two small children.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Artifact of the Month: Sennacherib Prism

(Posted by Michael J. Caba)

This month's artifact is known as the Sennacherib Prism. Made in ancient Assyria in c. 700 BC of baked clay, the prism is approximately 15 inches tall. The cuneiform script in the Akkadian language refers to Israelite King Hezekiah and to Assyrian King Sennacherib, both of whom are mentioned in the biblical text (cf. 2 Kings 19:9). In the inscription the Assyrian ruler boasts of trapping Hezekiah in Jerusalem like a caged bird. The artifact was purchased from a Baghdad antiquities dealer in c. 1919 and is now in the Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago. It is one of eight similar prisms with nearly identical text found so far (e.g., the Taylor Prism in the British Museum).

Of particular interest to biblical studies is the "spin" Sennacherib put on the story of his assault into the land of Israel in comparison to the typical portrayals in the biblical text of this and similar events. For instance, Sennacherib included his victories such as his aforementioned claim to have locked up Hezekiah in Jerusalem like a caged bird; yet he conveniently neglected to mention that he lost his entire army in the process. In fact, this approach to recording events is quite typical for Ancient Near Eastern rulers. In contrast, the Biblical text repeatedly takes a more evenhanded attitude to historical events by recording both the victories and defeats of the Israelites, and, perhaps more importantly, the reasons thereof. The more balanced approach by the biblical authors speaks to their interest in historical and theological accuracy, and also to the fact that they were inspired by One who has similar interests.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Roads of Arabia Exhibition

(Post by A.D. Riddle)
A friend and I recently took a 24-hour road trip to Kansas City, Missouri to see the "Roads of Arabia" exhibition. We have been following the exhibition on this blog since just after it began showing in 2010 (see here), and it looks like Missouri is about as close as it was ever going to get to where I live. The exhibition was larger than I had envisioned and it took about four-five hours to explore most of the exhibit (we had to skim over some parts). It begins with stone tools from the Lower Paleolithic and works its way up to the modern kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I learned a lot of interesting things, and there were a few surprises. Writing the curator in advance ensured I was able to take photographs, but that did not stop guards and docents from stopping us several times and telling us photography was not permitted. If you visit the exhibit, do not assume you will be able to take pictures—find out ahead of time, if that is something you want to do.

My interest in going was motivated by (1) the difficulty (or impossibility) of ever visiting Saudi Arabia to see these objects and sites, and (2) the occasional connections to Arabia sprinkled throughout the Bible. In particular, the exhibit displayed a number of objects from these biblical sites/kingdoms:

Midian

Dedan

Kedar (Qedar)

Sheba/Sabeans

Tema

Nabateans

Stela of Babylonian king Nabonidus from Tema.

The exhibition catalog was available in the museum store for $70, and after him-hawin' over the price tag, I decided to get it. It was well-worth the cost.

The volume is 607 pages long, and it is far more than a catalog. Not only does it have high-quality color photographs of all the objects on display, it has chapters on archaeology and history, each accompanied by maps, site plans, drawings and photographs. The chapters that caught my eye were:

“Geographic Introduction to the Arabian Peninsula,” by Paul Sanlaville

The book does not appear to be affordably priced at Amazon ($221), but it can be ordered from the Smithsonian ($79.50 including shipping) or from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art ($82.50 including shipping). One blogger gives something of a book review here with several snapshots of pages.

Here is a list of stops the "Roads of Arabia" exhibition has made since it opened in 2010.

Monday, June 23, 2014

The Sacred Bridge, Second Emended and Enhanced Edition

I noted on the Weekend Roundup that Carta had released a second edition of The Sacred Bridge but it was not clear what changes had been made.

I have since learned from sources at Accordance Bible Software what those changes include:

1. Many typographic corrections, both in the text and in the map descriptions. That’s good, since I don’t think I’ve seen a book with more typos than this one.

2. A few newer or updated pictures and maps.

3. A few places with rewritten text or updates in the archaeological information, especially from Steven Notley.

4. In the Accordance version, the detailed graphic timelines in the inside covers are now added, which were omitted in the first edition on Accordance.

Here’s the kicker: if you purchased the first edition in print, you have to pay full price for the second edition. (That’s the way it’s always been with print publishing.) But if you had purchased the electronic edition from Accordance, the second edition is a free upgrade. I think that is great business practice, but I don’t recall seeing it implemented very often. Kudos to Accordance for taking care of their customers!

Luke Chandler has arrived in Israel to join the new excavations at Lachish. Watch his blog for updates. There’s more information about the Fourth Expedition to Lachish at the website of Southern Adventist University.

Bible History Daily has published the first of several studio-quality videos about excavations of Tell Timai in the Nile Delta.

The Sacred Bridge is out in a second “emended and enhanced” edition. Eisenbrauns and Carta list it for sale but do not provide details for what has changed. (Anson Rainey died in 2011.)

Suzanne Marchand provides some interesting background on German-Turkish relations in archaeological work and how that was affected by World War I.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Nava Panitz-Cohen: Excavating Abel Beth Maacah

One of the directors of the Abel Beth Maacah excavation writes about the site and previous results on the eve of the second season. From the Jerusalem Post:

The site commands the narrow passageway from the Lebanese Beq’a to the north towards the Huleh Valley to the south, as well as the road to the east towards Damascus – via nearby Tel Dan – and Mesopotamia. This strategic border location has determined much of its occupation history until modern times.

Curiously, despite its biblical and topographic prominence, the site has never been excavated before. Perhaps this is because of its border location, where Lebanese farmers, U.N. personnel and local kibbutzniks are all in pretty close eye contact. Short surveys were conducted and plans were made; Yigael Yadin was going to dig there, but turned his sights to nearby Hazor; but excavations never materialized.

In 2012, a team from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem – in partnership with Azusa Pacific University in Los Angeles (who provided the critical funding and support for the project) and Cornell University in Ithaca, New York – took up the initiative. A preliminary survey took place in 2012, and a full-blown month-long season was conducted in 2013. The second season is set to begin in July and will also last a month.

The full story includes biblical connections and discoveries made last year.

Joseph Lauer has sent along a series of related links from the last few months:

Luke Chandler explains how a discovery from Khirbet Qeiyafa may help us to understand some details of Solomon’s temple described in 1 Kings 6. He includes a link to the Israel Exploration Journal article by Garfinkel and Mumcuoglu.

Shmuel Browns’ photo of the week is of Nahal Zavitan in the Golan Heights.

Where did Jesus change the water into wine? And what was the purpose of this miracle? Wayne Stiles explains and illustrates.

Scott Stripling is on The Book and the Spade this week, talking about last month’s excavations at Khirbet el-Maqatir (Ai?). Direct link here.

Tourism to Israel is at record levels, with 1.5 million visits from January to May this year.

The Sacred Bridge is on sale for Father’s Day at the Biblical Archaeology Society store. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen it lower than $79.95. (Amazon has it for $118 used or $125 new.) This is the standard reference for historical geography. These photos give a sense for how detailed the work is.

Friday, June 13, 2014

Recent Archaeology and the Bible

How do recent archaeological discoveries relate to the Bible? Michael Grisanti addresses this issue in a detailed article published last year in the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society and now available online. He begins with a statement from a critical scholar and then explains his own approach.

The archaeological evidence cited below and in any similar study never provides certifiable proof that a given individual lived or that a certain event took place. Our confidence in the accuracy and historicity of the people and events referred to in God’s Word draws on other evidence, primarily theological statements the Bible makes about itself. Regardless, one should recognize that the archaeological evidence does not rule out the people or events described in the Bible. As a matter of fact, archaeology provides a “picture” that points to the feasibility or plausibility that the people and events described in the Bible lived and occurred just as they are described.

[…]

Out of all the areas that could have received attention, I have narrowed my focus on two chronological periods: the Conquest of Canaan and the United Monarchy. For both I summarize the consensus of critical scholars and then consider the evidence that has been found. With regard to the Conquest of Canaan, the paper considers the recent discussion of an Egyptian pedestal with three name rings on it as well as the destruction of Jericho and the location and destruction of Ai. After surveying the heated debated concerning the United Monarchy with a focus on David and Solomon, the paper considers key archaeological discoveries found at Jerusalem, Khirbet Qeiyafa and the copper mines in southern Jordan. With each example I argue that the discoveries made at least allow for the historicity and accuracy of the biblical narratives describing those people and events.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

A Response to Critics of the Temple Mount Sifting Project

Last week we noted an article about the Temple Mount Sifting Project by Ilan Ben Zion in The Times of Israel. If you have any interest in the subject, you’ll want to read today’s response by the director of the project, Zachi Dvira. He counters charges made by three critics interviewed by Ben Zion.

Israel Finkelstein has never even visited the excavation. Yonathan Mizrachi said that the sifting project “doesn't have any archaeological value” after he failed to get a job at the worthless project!

The only interviewee that spoke to-the-point and is worthy of a response is Professor Marwan Abu-Khalaf, who claimed that the area from which the earth was removed was an Ottoman dump, and questioned our ability to glean information from soil without clear stratification. In our published articles we’ve already addressed these issues, including the well-known fact that the Ottoman finds come from a local dump – this being a good thing, since dumps provide the richest archaeological data from periods with no destruction phases.

Ben Zion gives an account of the contents of the introductory presentation given to visitors at the Sifting Project, and reports that there was no mention of the “Islam or Arabs, and solely emphasized the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount”. This is completely false. The reporter listened only to the beginning of the presentation, and then left due to a phone call.

I suspect that the problem, besides a certain amount of journalistic incompetence, is the desire for a story that generates lots of clicks, and for that you need controversy, not truth. I’ll keep that in mind before I recommend articles by this author in the future.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Israel’s New Archaeology Campus

Now under construction, Israel’s new archaeology center is profiled in the Architectural Record. We’ve mentioned thisprojectbefore, but today’s story includes some new information, such as the design of the complex (like a layered tell) and its open access to the public.

In Jerusalem, the capital of a modern country enthralled by its past, a unique national archaeology campus is being built. The project—commissioned by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and officially named The Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel—combines three major components: storage of the national archaeological treasures (some two million items); restoration labs for objects made of various materials, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, mosaics, and glass, textile, and clay finds; and a national archaeology library and archive.

[…]

The guiding principle in the design of the new complex, which Safdie proposed during the competition phase, was that the project be a metaphor for an archaeological excavation. The floors will be numbered from the top down, like the numbering of strata in an excavation. And some mosaic preservation work will take place in the courtyards, which will be shaded by a canopy much like the tent-like canopies used in actual digs. The most striking design feature is this giant, square, concave canopy, held in place by cables and made of a brown, woven fiberglass-and-polymer fabric that allows 40 percent light transmission while keeping rain out. “Because of the shape, [water] drains toward the center, forming a kind of fountain into a pool,” Safdie said.

[…]

The new campus “is not a museum,” although there will be displays of finds from recent excavations before they are shown permanently elsewhere. Most important, it will give people a chance to see the process of archaeology and have “a glimpse of the accumulation by allowing [them] into the vaults and to see 1,000 mosaics, 10,000 pots,” Safdie said. “It will have more meaning, that you can [come here] and then see … displays in the other museums.”

Since most tourists to Israel don’t even make it to the Israel Museum (sadly!), it is unlikely that this specialized archaeological complex will be added to tourist itineraries. But repeat visitors and those fascinated by archaeology will surely want to make time for it. The center is scheduled to open in April 2016.

The Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel Image courtesy Safdie Architects and the Israel Antiquities Authority

Israel’s Ministry of Tourism is looking to boost budget tourism by providing grants for the construction of hostels in Jerusalem and around the country.

The note that Pope Francis placed in a crack of the Western Wall had the text of the Lord’s Prayer written in Spanish.

“The Western Wall Heritage Foundation unveiled on Sunday a fully excavated grand hall from the 14th century in the Western Wall Tunnels that took 10 years to restore.” (JPost) An older video shows the hall under renovation. (HT: Joseph Lauer)

Exploring Bible Lands is leading a tour of Israel and just finished a visit to Northern Galilee.

What language did Jesus speak? The dispute between the pope and the prime minister has scholarsweighingin.

I’m on the Book and the Spade this week, talking with Gordon Govier about Magdala and a Jerusalem inscription (direct link here). I missed noting last week’s broadcast on the latest developments in the City of David. Details on The Book & The Spade 2015 Archaeological Adventure Study Tour are now available.

Friday, June 06, 2014

The Temple Mount Sifting Project and Its Detractors

The Temple Mount Sifting Project is profiled at length by Ilan Ben Zion in The Times of Israel. If you’ve been following the work for the last decade, much of the report will sound familiar. But Ben Zion provides some detractors with the opportunity to showcase their ignorance.

Israel Finkelstein: “the debris could also have been brought from other locations” besides the Temple Mount.

Marwan Abu-Khalaf: whatever was in that soil may have come from the surrounding Kidron Valley.

Yonathan Mizrachi: the sifting project “doesn't have any archaeological value.”

First, they tried to prevent archaeologists from studying the material illegally removed from the Temple Mount. When that failed, they try to deny it has any significance. Unfortunately, news reports like this one allow them to say whatever they want, without any evidence whatsoever.

Ben Zion describes some of the discoveries made since the project began in 2004.

Most of the tens of thousands of items found in the pans by volunteers are small — an abundance of coins, innumerable fragments of clay, figurines, brightly colored mosaic tiles and beads, arrowheads, inscribed stones and bits of bone. In explaining the trove of tiny artifacts found, Barkay made regular reference to biblical and post-biblical characters in corresponding the items to time periods: clay figurines smashed during the time of the just kings of Judah, seal impressions with the names of priests mentioned in the book of Jeremiah and coins minted during the rein of King Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who fought the Maccabees. The relics catalog the history of Jerusalem from antiquity through the modern era.